A recent National Academy of Sciences report criticized traditional ways of measuring success after individuals are released from prison that are entrenched in identifying failure by relying solely on recidivism, and place little weight on indicators of success. In a new study, researchers measured success using group-based multiple trajectory modeling; their findings offer timely evidence on the nuanced nature of reintegration and inform desistance theory and reintegration practice and policy.

Conducted by Pilar Larroulet, assistant professor of criminal justice at Rutgers-Newark School of Criminal Justice, and coauthors, the study measured the complexity involved in the process of reintegration for individuals released from prison, and identified indicators of success across six domains of life: housing, employment, health, constructive engagement, instrumental support, and offending.

With data from adults who were part of the Serious Violent Offender Registry Initiative, a federally funded project to assess whether individuals who received enhanced re-entry programming had different outcomes than those who did not receive the programming, the study supplemented binary indicators of offending with indicators that can capture offending desistance processes.

“Using an indicator of ‘failure’—recidivism—as the metric of ‘success’ is not only inconsistent with the realities of desisting from offending, which involves a gradual process of moving away from crime, but also ignores evidence of incremental successes in other dimensions of life,” explained Larroulet.

Added Bianca Bersani, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Maryland, who led the study: “Reintegration is better captured by positive achievements across various domains and by the accumulation of successes across those domains.”

The full report can be found here.